Sources: Microsoft And Yahoo Talks Back On — We've got multiple sources at both Yahoo and Microsoft telling us that official talks are back on between the two companies. But we're hearing something different than CNET - the talks are about a full buyout again, not a sweetened search-only deal.

Welcoming Bijan and Jeff — We're happy to announce two new members of our investment team: Bijan Sabet with Spark Capital in Boston and Jeff Bezos of Bezos Expeditions in Seattle. Bijan has also accepted a seat on our board of directors. We're looking forward to the guidance and advice both will bring to Twitter.

Introducing Google Ad Planner — If you're a media planner at an ad agency, you know that planning an online display buy can be challenging, particularly in scaling your campaign's reach while keeping it relevant for your target audience. Plus, how do you keep track of the millions of sites …

Is Google Ad Planner Getting Its Data From The Google Toolbar? — The recent launch of Google Trends for Websites was just a dress rehearsal. The real product that it is based on is Google Ad Planner, which the company announced today. Google Ad Planner is built for ad buyers who want to decide where to place their ads.

Digital politics: The future is broadband, not Facebook — NEW YORK—It's time to stop waxing philosophical about how this thing called “new media” is shaping American elections and time to focus on the real tech issues, like broadband policy. — We talked about bloggers in 2004 …

Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant — Sometimes, software isn't so magical. Even for Bill Gates. — For the opening piece in our series on Gates leaving daily life at Microsoft, one goal was to give a clear picture of the Microsoft co-founder's role inside the company, as a gauge of the impact his departure will have.

Tiny XP Rev 09: Windows XP with cuise control — Installing or reinstalling Windows can be a real hassle. Although Windows XP comes with a basic set of drivers, there's a good chance you'll have to dig out the driver disc for some of your hardware, or scour the Internet for the appropriate files.

Microsoft expanding Mac team ahead of new products — Microsoft's Mac Business last week kicked off the largest hiring spree in its history as the group prepares to accelerate development of a new wave of software products for Apple users. — “The Mac BU at Microsoft is growing …

Symbian, iPhone & the New Mobile Reality — Nokia, already a stakeholder in mobile OS maker Symbian, has announced that it will buy the remainder of the company and throw all the assets into a new platform called the Symbian Foundation, which will unite all the flavors of Symbian into a single …

The Death of Stealth Mode — D Seeing how attacking startup lawyers seems to be en vogue this month, let's put this post in the category of “Things I wish lawyers told their startup clients.” — Here's a situation I see all the time: — A pre-launch, stealth-mode company just closes a seed round of funding.

After Steve Jobs: Handicapping Apple's back bench — “You know, I think it wouldn't be a party,” Steve Jobs told Fortune in February, describing the future of his company if, as he put it, Jobs got hit by a bus. “But there are really capable people at Apple. ...

Hidden Sex Scenes Draw Ho-Hum, Except From Lawyers — Lawyers who sued the makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas profess to be shocked, simply shocked, that few people who bought the game were offended by sex scenes buried in its software. — Any buyer upset about hidden sex …

MacBook Air SuperDrive for all — So like me, you have a MacBook Air SuperDrive... It's affordable, it's functional, it's sexy. If only it was usable with other Macs and PCs! — Well rejoice :) I have successfully hacked my MBA SuperDrive to work with other Macs and PCs.

About Loren Feldman & Michael Arrington — More than once a day, nearly every day, for the last three months I have been asked how I feel about Loren Feldman's sock puppet and seemingly unending shots at me from his Twitter pulpit. — My answer is pretty consistent. I do not like it.

Suit accuses Google of trade secret theft — LimitNone, a small software development company, is seeking nearly $1 billion in damages in a lawsuit that accuses Google of reneging on a partnership with the small company and misappropriating its trade secrets for its Google Apps online service.

Does Your Gmail Suck Too? — A few months ago, at the insistence of some of my team members, we switched from Zimbra to Google Apps for our own domain offering. The argument was that Google's quality of service, thanks to its great infrastructure, would be great and that we could also use Google Docs for easy sharing of information.